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Deborah notice a pimple on her chest on her wedding day but didn't think anything of it

She has recently finished treatment, using a special cream for BCC, for another cancerous patch on her chest.

But it was’t until a recent Facebook ‘Timehop’ notification popped up with all her wedding snaps - a feature which shows you past memories - that she realised the annoying spot just above the neckline of her white dress had actually been the first sign of cancer.

Deborah, who is now mum to Madison, eight, and Jacob, five, married underwriter Martyn, now 47, in a church in Auckland, New Zealand, near where she had grown up.

After her honeymoon, the spot became a scab that wouldn’t heal, but she didn’t think it needed treatment because it was small and flat.

Then in March 2008 she went to see her GP about a raised mark on her back, which he said was fine, but the spot on her chest worried him.

Deborah was referred to a consultant at the Airedale General Hospital in Steeton, West Yorkshire, who confirmed it was basal cell carcinoma after a biopsy in 2008.

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A year after her wedding, Deborah was diagnosed with the most common form of skin cancer

In July 2008 at the Bradford Royal Infirmary, Deborah had surgery to remove the cancerous spot, under a local anaesthetic, so she was awake the whole time.

She said: “I shudder now thinking how horrendous it was to feel the needles.

“It was a tugging feeling, but the nurses were really good at distracting me.

“There is a massive scar on my chest, at least 15cm long. They had to cut out a canoe-shape and had to cut a certain distance away from the spot to ensure they covered the surrounding area.”

After surgery, she tried to put her experience to the back of her mind, but her horror was not over.

She noticed a red mark on her back and another “rough patch” on her forehead, in around September 2013 and immediately went to see her GP.

Deborah was referred for a biopsy at Airedale the next month, and unfortunately both spots were confirmed as malignant. The cancerous cells on her back were cut out during the biopsy.

PA REAL LIFE

Deborah is now extra cautious with her skin, especially when it comes to sunbathing

She then had surgery to remove the cancerous lesion on her forehead at the Chapel Allerton Hospital, Leeds, again under local anaesthetic, in January 2014.

In early 2015 she went to her GP with another mark on the centre of her chest and in May 2015 it was confirmed as BCC again.

Deborah has had four rounds of the treatment, so far, and doesn’t need any further treatment for the time being, but she is still at the risk of reoccurrence, and will see her doctor in six months for a review.

Now, she is extra cautious with her skin, especially when it comes to sunbathing, and doesn’t take any chances, making sure to use sun cream, a hat, sunglasses and clothes which cover her shoulders.

She said: “I nearly cried when my son didn’t have a hat and sun cream at school on an unexpected sunny day last year.

“No amount of tanning is worth the stress of healing cancerous skin cells.”

For more information on skin cancer visit www.britishskinfoundation.org.uk.